Ring of Fire Character help.

[Finlam]

I've been thinking that it would be great to have a character that keeps enemies locked down (probably with Sentinel) and then sustains a Wall of Fire around himself and the enemies (pointing inward) to toast them. How would you make this concept work?

Evasion + a really high dex save seems a pretty intuitive way to go. Of course, fire immunity would be pretty great too.

We need either Rogue or Monk 7 for evasion, at which point we're looking at about a +7 Dex save. We could go monk 14 to get Diamond Soul, but that leaves us very few levels to actually get Wall of Fire.

I feel like there's much better options though. How would you go about it?

[RulesJD]

I've been thinking that it would be great to have a character that keeps enemies locked down (probably with Sentinel) and then sustains a Wall of Fire around himself and the enemies (pointing inward) to toast them. How would you make this concept work?

Evasion + a really high dex save seems a pretty intuitive way to go. Of course, fire immunity would be pretty great too.

We need either Rogue or Monk 7 for evasion, at which point we're looking at about a +7 Dex save. We could go monk 14 to get Diamond Soul, but that leaves us very few levels to actually get Wall of Fire.

I feel like there's much better options though. How would you go about it?

Um, Evocation Wizard 2 is the bare minimum requirement.

After that, it doesn't really matter.

[Innocent_bystan]

You could take 7 levels of draconic sorcerer to be able to cast Wall of Fire, add your Charisma to the damage and spend a sorcery Point to gain Resistance to Fire damage.
Alternatively, you could be a Dragonborn of Tiefling to get Resistance to Fire damage.

Bonus Points if you use Thorn whip or Lightning lure to draw enemies to you.

Another fun tactic would be to grapple the enemies and drag them through the wall of Fire or just keep them there.

[Finlam]

Um, Evocation Wizard 2 is the bare minimum requirement.

After that, it doesn't really matter.

Nice.

So Fighter x/Evocation Wizard 2.

Taking a page out of Innocent_bystan's book: maybe a level of rogue for expertise in athletics so you can drag people into it. Now looking at:
Fighter x/Evocation Wizard 2/Rogue1

We could extend it to the 6 levels of sorcerer for CHA to damage for

FighterX/Evocation Wizard 2/Rogue1/Sorc6

I suppose another option is Evocation Wizard 2/Warlock X. We need to make sure we bamf up our movespeed, but we could use repelling blast to try to push enemies that escape back into the ring of fire.

If we did go the sorc route, twinned Booming Blade is a natural choice and would really punish enemies for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially if we can take warcaster.

Unfortunately, we're looking at almost monk-level MAD at that point.

Any cantrips or spells that would combo well with this? For feats, warcaster is an obvious choice, but if we're already taking Sentinel, we're gonna be stretched pretty thin.

[Innocent_bystan]

Instead of going Wizard 2/ Sorcerer 7, I'd choose either Sorcerer 9 (with careful spell) or Wizard 9. Evokers get +Int to damage at level 10, which makes Wizard a better choice at that level.

Rogue and Sentinel also combine very nicely: You get Sneak Attacks once per turn, not once per Round.

[RulesJD]

Note, are you planning on casting the Wall of Fire yourself?

[Finlam]

Note, are you planning on casting the Wall of Fire yourself?

That's the idea =)

[RulesJD]

That's the idea =)

In that case you are definitely going to need to go Evocation Wizard if you want to stand in the middle of the Wall of Fire.

You should know that you could do similar things at a MUCH lower level with Create Bonfire, Flaming Sphere, etc. But if you want WoF, you need Evocation Wizard 9 to get access to level 5 spell (WoF). After that, I would recommend EVO Wiz 10 for +Int to damage, then some better class for tanking, probably Fighter.

Take a background that grands proficiency in Athletics and then maybe find a Gauntlet of Ogre Power?

[Innocent_bystan]

What about Fiend Warlock with pact of the Blade?

They can cast Wall of Fire (a lot), get temporary hp on a kill (handy if you want to survive your own Wall of Fire) and are more Martial than Sorcerer or Wizard. Tiefling gets Resistance to Fire damage. No multiclassing required.

Unrelated to Warlock: You might also want to look at a way to get a fireproof net.

[RulesJD]

Keep in mind, you need to go Evocation Wizard because Wall of Fire is a concentration spell. Any other build will result in you taking damage, no matter how small it is (even with Evasion you'll fail your own DC often enough). Even 1 point of damage = Concentration save for the WoF. The only way to avoid that guaranteed damage is EVO Wiz.

Also, I was actually mistaken, Wall of Fire is only a 4th level spell, so you can get away with Wizard 7 to at least get access to 1/day. However, you're going to want to use it more often than that, soooo my recommended build would be Evocation Wizard 8 (might as well snag that ASI)/Moon Druid+

Use Wild Shape forms + Athletics proficiency to help with your crappy Str/Health. Mostly importantly, Druids are Full Casters, so you'll get more spell slots to upcast Wall of Fire with.

Also, you're going to need the feat Elemental Affinity (Fire) to get rid of those pesky Fire Resistant monsters.

[Finlam]

Keep in mind, you need to go Evocation Wizard because Wall of Fire is a concentration spell. Any other build will result in you taking damage, no matter how small it is (even with Evasion you'll fail your own DC often enough). Even 1 point of damage = Concentration save for the WoF. The only way to avoid that guaranteed damage is EVO Wiz.

Also, I was actually mistaken, Wall of Fire is only a 4th level spell, so you can get away with Wizard 7 to at least get access to 1/day. However, you're going to want to use it more often than that, soooo my recommended build would be Evocation Wizard 8 (might as well snag that ASI)/Moon Druid+

Use Wild Shape forms + Athletics proficiency to help with your crappy Str/Health. Mostly importantly, Druids are Full Casters, so you'll get more spell slots to upcast Wall of Fire with.

Also, you're going to need the feat Elemental Affinity (Fire) to get rid of those pesky Fire Resistant monsters.
Nice!

So this could kind of come together as early as 8th level. If we go vHuman and start with a level of Fighter for armor and profs, we could start with sentinel, pick up Elemental Affinity and still get one ASI at 10th level as a Fighter 1/Druid 1/Wizard 8.

The trouble now is just passing the concentration checks when we're trapped in a ring of fire with things that want to hurt us =P

Maybe we should replace Sentinel with Warcaster so we can use Booming Blade instead of sentinel, then we may be able to go with the straight wizard/druid, knocking off a level of Fighter and giving adv on the CON saves for concentration.

I guess the last bit of trouble is that we can't spells in beast-mode, meaning we have to wade into melee, drop WoF, and then shift into beastmode =/

Maybe drop druid for rogue w/double prof in athletics? If we take it to Rogue 2 we get cunning action which could be very helpful in chasing down and dragging enemies back into the fire =)

[Degwerks]

I'd just go with some other AoE spell. Like Spirit Guardians, less creatures resistant to it, its mobile, and party member friendly.

Go Favored Soul 1/Lore Bard 6, its 1d8 less dmg but like i said its mobile, friendly & most can't resist it. 30ft diameter circle.

Also could start as a fighter instead. Go high elf and grab Booming Blade. Lore Bard for Thorn Whip & spirit guardians.

[Innocent_bystan]

A thought just occurred to me: the spell Spirit Guardians does all you want Wall of Fire to do, and then some.

15 ft radius instead of 10ft radius
Radiant damage instead of Fire damage
Centered on you instead of stationary
Lvl 3 slot instead of a Lvl 4 slot
3d8 damage instead of 5d8 damage (4d8 in a 4th level slot)
Wisdom save instead of Dexterity save
No damage to self and allies, included in the spell
Creates difficult terrain

The radiant damage is easily refluffed as an aura of burning light, or with a semi-lenient dm: changed to Fire damage. Which makes it worse.
Cleric is a decent martial on it's own, you can even freely choose the domain. Thematically, Light is excellent. It even adds Wall of Fire to your spells. But a case could equally be made for Arcana (SCAG cantrips, including Booming Blade) or Nature (Shilellagh and Heavy armor, only needs WIS for casting and combat)

Concept kicks in at level 5.

You could even go as far as cleric 7 (Light, for WoF) / wizard 2 (Evoker) and still pull off the Wall of Fire combo by level 9. In medium armor, with a shield and healing at your fingertips. Which would solve some of the survivability problems a wizard build would have.